The Disappearance Of Alice Creed
- Year:2009
- Rating:MA
- Director:J Blakeson
- Cast:Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston, Eddie Marsan
- Release Date:September 09, 2010
- Distributor:Icon
- Running time:100 minutes
- Film Worth:$9.00
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Largely devoid of suspense and thrills, this film is slightly lifted by Gemma Arterton’s compelling performance.
It begins with two men preparing for what you already know will be the abduction of Alice Creed, the adult daughter of a wealthy man. The kidnappers are chillingly methodical, offering a promising start to this British thriller. But The Disappearance Of Alice Creed soon gets derailed by its own ambitions. Writer/director J Blakeson aims high in his first feature - he wants to put you through a fasten-your-seatbelt psychological ride. Set in a confined space and revolving around only three characters, there's the promise of suspense and the danger of getting stagey. Blakeson avoids the stagey but instead of a snakish plot, we just get slices of information piled on top of each other, as opposed to genuine twists and turns.
In an astute physical performance, Gemma Arterton (Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time) is compelling as Alice. Gagged and tied to a bed, Arterton conveys the right mix of fear and defiance. She's the best thing here, and is somewhat let down by her co-stars Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen) as Danny - the younger of the two kidnappers - and Eddie Marsan (Hancock, Happy-Go-Lucky) as the stilted, unpleasant, uninteresting Vic.
The mental games that the characters play are underdeveloped, and the look of the film isn't worth leaving home for. A grimy room does not substitute for atmosphere - it's just dingy. This film can't compare to Malcolm Venville's brilliant 44 Inch Chest, another recent British thriller by a neophyte director about a kidnapping, and also set in a confined space. But The Disappearance Of Alice Creed isn't a total time-waster; while hardly gripping and marred by unfortunate moments of unintended humour, it's reasonable enough thanks to an amazing Arterton. You do want to see it through, yet it could have been so much better if a real storyteller had hold of this idea. The potential was there.
